North Korea on US after terror relisting: “Kingpin of all kinds of terrorism”

In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to place North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, a North Korean Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson called Washington “the kingpin of all kinds of terrorism.” The spokesperson also defended the country’s nuclear program, saying that it is a deterrence against U.S. threats.

Pyongyang criticized Wednesday U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to place North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism. According to KCNA Watch, an aggregator of official North Korean media output, a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson called the move a “serious provocation and a violent infringement.”

During an interview with the KCNA news agency, the spokesperson accused the U.S. of being “the kingpin of all kinds of terrorism,” adding that the act of labeling other countries as state sponsors of terrorism is “clearly an absurdity and a mockery to the world peace and security.”

The spokesperson then defended the country’s nuclear program, saying that the weapons are the deterrence to safeguard North Korea’s sovereignty and its right to existence amid the U.S. harmful policy and nuclear threats.”

As reported by JOL earlier this week, Trump said that North Korea should have been placed back on the list “a long time ago.” Pyongyang was removed from the list in 2008 when the US and its allies in the Far East region were holding talks with the pariah state.